Book Details

ISBN 139781783982424

Paperback110 pages

Book Description

This book begins with an introduction to the functionality and benefits of using Chef to manage Windows systems. From there, you are shown an overview of the Chef architecture and how to prepare a Windows host so that it can be managed by Chef, followed by an example of writing code to install a popular .NET application with Chef.

This book looks at how Windows system administrators can effectively leverage Chef as an automated system management tool to simplify their lives through managed infrastructure. Included are practical examples that will help you to understand how to take advantage of Chef when managing your infrastructure.

By the end of the book, you will be able to deploy software, provision hosts (including cloud servers), develop and test recipes for multiple platforms, and manage Windows hosts using the powerful tools that Chef provides.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Chef and Windows

Working with Windows

Integrating with Linux-based systems

Working with Windows-specific resources

Summary

Chapter 2: Installing the Client – an Overview of Chef Concepts

Getting to know Chef better

An overview of Chef's architecture

Installing the Chef client on Windows

Summary

Chapter 3: Windows-specific Resources

Working with Windows-specific resources

Managing roles and features

Executing batch scripts

Running scripts at startup

Installing software packages

Manipulating printers

Interacting with the Windows Registry

Managing the system path

Scheduling tasks

Interacting with Windows pagefiles

ZIP files

Rebooting Windows

Summary

Chapter 4: Provisioning an Application Stack

Examining the cookbook

Installing the cookbook

Examining the recipe

Performing the installation

Summary

Chapter 5: Managing Cloud Services with Chef

Working with Microsoft Azure

Managing Amazon EC2 instances

Interacting with Rackspace Cloud

Summary

Chapter 6: Going Beyond the Basics

Chef's declarative language

Handling multiple platforms

Versioning and source control

Summary

What You Will Learn

Integrate Windows systems with Linux-based systems in a heterogeneous network

Automate the configuration of new Windows servers to provide various network services such as a web application

Scale your Windows infrastructure in a consistent and automated manner with cloud providers such as AWS, Rackspace Cloud, and Azure

Deploy new hosts into your infrastructure in minutes instead of hours

Develop cookbooks and recipes for your custom Windows configuration

Deploy and configure a complete .NET / IIS application to a Windows server using Chef

Authors

John Ewart

John Ewart is a system architect, software developer, and lecturer. He has designed and taught courses at a variety of institutions, including the University of California, The California State University, and local community colleges. These courses cover a wide range of computer science topics, including Java, data structures and algorithms, operating systems fundamentals, Unix and Linux system administration, and web application development. In addition to working and teaching, he maintains and contributes to a number of open source projects. He currently resides in Redmond, Washington, with his wife, Mary, and their two children.

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Learning

As a new user, these step-by-step tutorial guides will give you all the practical skills necessary to become competent and efficient.

Beginner's Guide

Friendly, informal tutorials that provide a practical introduction using examples, activities, and challenges.

Essentials

Fast paced, concentrated introductions showing the quickest way to put the tool to work in the real world.

Cookbook

A collection of practical self-contained recipes that all users of the technology will find useful for building more powerful and reliable systems.

Blueprints

Guides you through the most common types of project you'll encounter, giving you end-to-end guidance on how to build your specific solution quickly and reliably.

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Take your skills to the next level with advanced tutorials that will give you confidence to master the tool's most powerful features.

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